“Stop wasting your time living someone else’s life. Your daily activities do not reflect who you really are! You can survive by being true to yourself. What happens if your mask gets so thick that you can’t take it off?”
–From Soulshaping by Jeff Brown
It is easy to become trapped in the monotonous schedule of the day-to-day when you forget why it is you are ‘going through the motions.’ People can lose their sense of self within the rush of life or become bogged down by the past and forget to live. Many forms of art preach the need to take time for inner-reflection and soul-searching, renewing the dedication to live wholeheartedly for the self.
Jeff Brown uses this mantra of self-fulfillment and deeply personalizes it, guiding the reader through his own self-experiences in Soulshaping. He shows how it is that a driven lawyer allowed his soul to lead his path instead of his past or career. He pours forth the passion of his experiences, taking the reader on a journey through his harsh family life, transformation of self through reflection, exploration of relationships in contrast to the self, and his eventual voyage toward spirituality.
Jeff Brown’s book confronts readers with blinding truths that can comfort or terrify. Soulshaping is a defining book, as it will certainly become the inspiration for change in the lives of many.
“One lifetime after another, the soul chooses the life that will expand its shape. It chooses circumstances and obstacles…It chooses the body that will best bring the lessons home.”
Such lessons are of the utmost importance in today’s society, given the high depression rate around the world. There are a growing number of people who feel imprisoned in their careers and are emotionally deadened by the drone of everyday life.
Soulshaping will give rise to the inspiration that is necessary to lead lives that are more fulfilling and nourishing. Jeff Brown’s words will transform lifeless beings into vibrant individuals, overcome with a new sense of spirituality and a deep motivation and enthusiasm for life.
“Inner growth is like a truth serum that re-frames and clarifies our lens to the outside world.”
Readers will find their souls rekindled and learn to appreciate the beauty of the world at large while seeking a greater purpose at their current state in life.
Q&A with Jeff Brown
Q. What book is on your nightstand now?
A. Brother of the Third Degree by Will Carver
Q. Is there a book that changed your life?
A. Abraham Maslow’s Biography – The Right to Be Human
Q. Who are some writers whose work you admire.
A. Rumi, Rumi, Rumi.
Q. When did you think about becoming a writer? Was there someone who got you interested in writing?
A. The call to write lived inside of me, but my English teacher, Graham Northcott, stoked it in high school with words of encouragement that really landed.
Q. What’s the greatest influence on your writing?
A. (1) My inner nag; (2) Jean Houston – her way of up-framing language made it feel okay to attempt the same when it started to come through me.
Q. What made you decide to write Soulshaping?
A. It was pre-encoded. I had glimpses of this path throughout my life. I just had to do some internal prep work before I was ready to honor it.
Q. Is there any particular story to tell concerning the writing of this book?
A. Too many for words ?
Q. What is the one thing that you want readers to take away from your book?
A. That they do not have to hide their light under a bushel of shame; that each of them has a profound reason for being here in this lifetime, and that they can both excavate and actualize it, whatever stands in their way.
Q. How do you write? Do you have a daily routine? What’s good about it? What do you hate about it?
A. I didn’t have a daily routine when I wrote Soulshaping. It seized me, called me, pummeled me to the ground and told me not to get up until I had accomplished something. It could happen at any time. It didn’t care if I had work the next day, or hadn’t slept the night before. It just took me and let me go when it was good and ready. In the most intense phases, I wrote on my hands when I couldn’t find paper, I filled up my answering machine messages with word re-frames, etc. It was a form of madness, but a wondrous madness – the delights that come from dipping into the River of Essence, if only for a moment. I miss it.
Q. How did you find the publisher for this book? What has your experience with the process been like?
A. I have had an odd but very positive experience. I queried a leading spiritual publisher on their website in the summer 2007. They asked to see the manuscript. Shortly thereafter, they returned it to me cut in half and with an offer. I was both ecstatic and enraged. I stepped back to clarify. My ego was delighted, my soul was grumbling. I decided not to take the offer for various reasons. I wanted to put Soulshaping into the world on my terms. I self-published at the end of 2007, and the book was met with a very strong response. I realized that it needed wider access, so called an agent I knew. He encouraged me to call a distributor he knew, and that distributor called some publishers to recommend the book. Two of them expressed an interest – North Atlantic Books felt like the best fit. We did a deal shortly thereafter.
Q. What are you working on next?
A. A higher consciousness love story.
Q. What have you learned about human nature that isn’t common knowledge?
A. That we are the God-self. We really are.
Q. What single thing might people be surprised to learn about you?
A. That I wrote many of the terms in the Soulshaping Dictionary after hours spent reading the Daily Racing Form. Yes, the sacred and the profane. I can seldom distinguish them (enrealment).
The question no one asks, the one you’re itching to answer is…
Q. How do you REALLY feel about having written such a self-revealing book?
A. Terrified.
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CLICK HERE for Soulshaping excerpts, author events, recent praise, and Jeff Brown’s Soul Blog.
How will you use these ideas in your own life? Leave a comment to let us know!
*Special thanks to Karin Skoog, Editorial Intern, for contributing this post.
I’ve read Jeff’s book..first print..it’s an honest, at times sad, but ultimately uplifting triumph of love, and self acceptance. Truly inspiring story I could relate to personally.
Also, it found a special place of interest from a male point of view, on the spiritual path. Something there is not a lot of out there for boys/men to relate to the softer side of who they are. I took to reading parts to my son as he struggled with his inner self.
I read the first edition of Jeff’s book and it took me somewhere new. I had grown tired of self help books that preach at me. He called out to my own journey by being so vunerable and real. This book will change many lives now.
Self revealing yet authentic to the core ! A wonderful insight to awakening the inner journey and pure fire of spiritual life and living. From the heart upwards… I highly recommend reading this book, it’s bold, touching and light on the senses
Nice story you got here. I’d like to read something more about that theme.
I find it difficult to sit down with a book without my mind taking me off to other places distracting me… and then occasionally God throws a book onto my lap that allows No distractions in……this is one of those books. Its real,honest and deeply touching.
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